Building a proudly African legacy
Portia Nondo, founder
Mbali Ndandani, founder
Zettuu (digital solutions for African entrepreneurs)
Connecting Africans
Portia Nondo and Mbali Ndandani have a gift for uniting diverse types of people. And as for what brought them together? A love for God, a love for Africa, and a love for entrepreneurs. As a team, they are constantly pushing themselves to ask, “What if?”
Unique beginnings
Portia spent hers in Zambia. Her mother was from Botswana and her father, Zimbabwe. She studied industrial engineering in the Czech Republic, moved to Zimbabwe, and finally settled in South Africa.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m a child of the world – I belong everywhere. It’s been a passion of mine to know the world beyond what you can see,” Portia says.
Mbali’s father encouraged her to believe that she belonged everywhere too.
“As a little girl my father would ask my opinion on things and I didn’t care, I just wanted to play. But it taught me that my voice matters. Because of who I am, I can do anything,” she says.
“A transformed Africa 100 years from now.”
Making an impact beyond their lifetimes
Their paths crossed when they both worked for the same corporation. They soon realised they could merge common interests into an entrepreneurial venture.
They decided to focus on a venture that would make inclusion a core value.
“Inclusion has always been a huge value of mine. Inclusion that is facilitated by access,” Mbali says.
Portia agrees, “It’s important that we are using technology in a way that will embrace everyone from Mombasa to Accra. We believe in this crazy dream.”
That ‘crazy’ dream, in a word: “A transformed Africa 100 years from now.”
They plan to achieve this by building an ecosystem of support for African entrepreneurs, including empowering entrepreneurs to become drivers in manufacturing.
“Entrepreneurs have a say in how this thing evolves,” Portia says. “This is something that will last – legacy. This is bigger than us!”
